The man who refused to be regimented as a player has turned Clyde’s pre-season training into a military exercise.

But the game’s great extrovert can regale you with a series of anecdotes from the days when the game was full of volunteers for a laugh, instead of those who have to be conscripted to do their duty.

And he regrets the fact football is now more about agility than ability. You could call them the reflections of a reformed rascal.

Chic has just turned 50 and reaching his half-century has provided him with the vantage point for looking back on the times when the fitba’ was great.

And looking down his nose at what passes for the beautiful game today.

His personal enthusiasm remains as high as it ever was, evidenced by his wholehearted approach to a training session with his players at a centre for total combat military fitness.

But his disdain for the way the game is run, and the lack of effort some players are willing to put into their work, has plumbed fresh depths.

Charnley was the bane of all of his manager’s lives because of the indiscipline that caused him to be sent off 17 times in his career.

But he could play.

He’s not sure that accolade could be handed out to as many of the present-day professionals as think they merit that praise.

Charnley said: “I look at the plans to form the new Scottish Professional Football League and I don’t believe it will make a blind bit of difference to the standard of play in this country.

“The game is so lacking in colour there are several members of Gordon Strachan’s Scotland squad I wouldn’t recognise on sight."

“They don’t have the same appetite for football today. All we had growing up was a ball to play with and the games up the park were 22-a-side.

“And if you weren’t up in time you couldn’t get on.

“The people who govern football have complicated a simple game and the quality just isn’t there on the park any more.”

Charnley’s condemnation of the way the game is governed takes in the decision to put Rangers into the Third Division after the club had gone into liquidation.

His preference for Celtic is well known but his appreciation of what Rangers bring to Scottish football is honestly felt.

Chic Charnley having a laugh with Rangers fans at the Irn-bru Third Division game between Clyde and Rangers. (Image: Willie Vass)

He said: “The loss of Rangers from the top flight has cost the game dearly. Punishment for them should have been meted out in some other way.

“But what a difference they made to us, and the rest, when we were in the same division as Ally McCoist’s side last season.

“Clyde’s treatment room was always empty when a game against Rangers was coming up.

“And you could sense the extra edge about your players weeks in advance when they wanted to make sure they were chosen to play at Ibrox.

“They raised their game and, of course, you had to ask why they didn’t do that when a match against Rangers wasn’t on the horizon.

“We’ll all miss the money the Rangers supporters made for us when they were in our division but most of all we’ll miss their team for what they gave to the game.

“I’ll be glad to see the back of them because it means you won’t actually know in advance who will win the Third Division title or make it to the play-offs at the end of the season.

“But there’s no doubt they raised standards in the lowest league.”

The current financial climate dictates that, minus Rangers, Clyde aren’t in a position to add to their present squad of players.

The manager Jim Duffy and Charnley will have to negotiate the season with just 15 players and a host of youths.

Getting them fit for the rigours of that prolonged exercise is of particular importance and one area of the modern-day game which doesn’t attract Charnley’s scorn.

He said: “Today’s player is first class when it comes to maintaining fitness but skill-wise they’re not a match for the generations who preceded them. They train so hard because they’re actually more interested in looking fit than they are in being good at football.

“When I was playing at Partick Thistle our manager there, John Lambie, used to say there were some players who looked the part but couldn’t have taken the ball off a banana.”

Talk of Lambie and Firhill brings it all rushing back for Charnley. The pre-seasons he describes would spread fear and alarm among people of a nervous disposition.

He said: “I used to say Rangers had Murray Park and we had Ruchill Park.

“Lambie would make us go up a hill with tyres tied to a 10-foot rope and when we were struggling to make our way back down he’d fire golf balls at us with his seven iron to improve co-ordination when it came to avoiding serious injury. And all the time he’d be laughing like a drain.

“Everyone knows the most bizarre training session of all was the one that was interrupted when a couple of neds wandered into the park and started waving knives and a Samurai sword.

“Big Gerry Collins took care of the knife wielders and I decked the swordsman after he’d slashed my hand. You can’t get pre-season training any more haphazard than that.

“Now you have sessions that are the model of professionalism but the football’s nowhere near as good once the competitions start.

“Thistle once went for a cross country run through Mugdock Park in Milngavie and we lost one of the young boys. We went back to the ground without him and he turned up five hours later.

"But Lambie was at his vengeful worst when he took us to Barra and gave us Sunday off in the belief there was nothing to do there on the Sabbath.

“But we found an RAF club and got blootered. The following day he murdered us in training.”

Charnley’s turn of pace was deceptive in so far as he was even slower than most people thought but it wasn’t due to lack of effort.

He said: “I prided myself on being a good trainer. I could run all day long but I was embarrassed by having no personal discipline on match days.

“I was blessed with good ability in an era of terrific players. Some players in the SPL today wouldn’t have got a first-team game 10 years ago.”

So why does Charnley bother to undertake the miles that need to be travelled to complete Clyde’s fixture list in the bottom tier?

He said: “I got the coaching bug when I worked with the youth team at Firhill. And I’m working with a top pro in Duff at Broadwood.

“He’s mellowed by 50 per cent since he was manager of Dundee and had me by the throat up against a wall at half-time during a pre-season friendly in Ireland.

“It’s great to be involved, even if it’s a camel trek to get to some of the away matches.

“Some players in the top division today are pampered to hell. They actually think they’re film stars with everything from personal masseurs to bodyguards.

“But if you asked them to play full out for two games in the space of a week they’d turn pale at the thought. The old guard were up to all the dodges but they gave you everything when matches started.

“I remember I was at Hibs and the squad were sent for a run up and down Arthur’s Seat during pre-season training.

“I couldn’t figure out why Tony Rougier was within sight of me going up the hill but nowhere to be seen coming down.

“Then I caught sight of him sitting on the bonnet of a tourist’s car and getting a lift to relax.

“Tony only jumped off and ran the rest of the way when he caught his first glimpse of Duff, who was the manager at Easter Road then, standing in wait for us at the foot of the hill.